Science & The Spirit

OWNERS MANUAL

Health Helps Part 1

By Dane and Vicki Griffin

Has your family ever purchased a new car? It's amazing how much a manmade conglomeration of steel, plastic, aluminum, wires, dials, gauges, hoses, rubber, air bags, and glass can cost! While cars differ in design, color, length, gas mileage, and a host of other factors, there's one thing they all have in common: an owners manual.

Valuable information

Every car manufacturer provides an owner's manual. What person would buy a new car—or even a used one—and ignore the owner's manual? It contains very valuable information—and advice that could save thousands of dollars in repair bills, or even the life of the car! It lists what type of oil to use, when to change the hoses, filters, and belts, when to have the car serviced, and much, much more. It would be plain foolishness to lay down thousands of dollars to buy a new car and then ignore the manufacturer's guidelines!

More complex than cars

The human body is much more complex than a car. We have trillion of cells that form tissues, boners, hair, sensory and internal organs, and the chemical and hormonal systems that operate them all. We have about 30 trillion cells, which perform an average of 10,000 chemical functions every day. Out body is controlled and coordinated by over 16 million neurons and 120 trillion "connection boxes" or receptors in a complex system of neuro-passageways. But the brain and spinal cord, which orchestrate the whole process, weigh less than 3 pounds! Imagine: Your body's response to just one stress situation produces more than 1,400 known physiological reactions!

Our heart beats of 100,000 times daily to more blood 168 million miles around our body, and we take about 23,800 breaths a day to bring about 438 cubic feet of air to our lungs. David expressed it best when he sang, "I will praise The; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are Thy works."1

Master Designer

Some believe that we evolved by "chance" out of a primordial2 "slime" pool. It takes a lot of faith to believe something like that! On the other hands, Christians believe the Bible when it says, "It is [God] that hath made us."3 In other words, there is a Master Designer, an all intelligent, all powerful God who created the marvelous human machine. And just as we might expect, He has left us an Owner's Manual—a detailed guide to show us how to care for His creation. Over and over again as science has investigated the incredibly complex human machine, it has confirmed the health principles recorded in this Owner's Manual we know as the Bible.

God wants you to be happy

God wants you to be healthy, happy and well-balanced. And so, in the Bible, He not only gives valuable principles of how to relate to Him, but also instructions for what to eat and drink, how to work and play, and much much more! As your Master Designer, He knows that if you choose to ignore these principles, you risk disease, stress, and depression.

Remember: God is not some uncaring being, sitting in Heaven watching you blunder through life. He has a plan for you, and a desire! It's found in 3 John 2: "Beloved, I wish above all things that thou prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth."